Saturday, March 31, 2012

Brin and Bear It

Someone I know of in the broadly-defined ''polar cities community'' regularly consults with various branches of America's “protector caste”... from the military services and homeland security to several unnamed “agencies.” He says he is naturally ''encouraged by the fact that some of the most serious-minded men and women on the planet are very interested in well-grounded projections of diverse possible futures'' - not only his ideas, but those of several other "science & sci-fi people, male and female.

He recently shared an interesting observation:

''Absolutely all of the top-elite officers of these services appear to be convinced, without a shadow of a doubt, about Human Generated Climate Change (HGCC). All of those I have met consider it to be both real and one of the greatest challenges of our time.

Ponder this: the US Navy is striving with great intensity to prepare for an Arctic Ocean that is nearly ice-free for large parts of the year. Canada is shifting most of its military budget northward.

The Russians have moved an entire division to the Siberian northern coast. The Russian Navy’s top priority? Their pride-and-joy? SIX brand new, double-hulled, nuclear powered icebreakers they recently put in service.

A year or so ago, the Northwest passage opened so wide that a flood of cargo vessels raced through it from China to Europe.

What do all of these groups share in common? They cannot afford to let their view of reality be warped by willful delusion, just-so stories, Beckian rants and denialist dogma, They don't have the time for denialism. ''